Questions That Need Asking
by HecateA
Summary: This entire day has been bittersweet. Even so, Andromeda was expecting a grandchild—not an oath. Oneshot.


**Author's note: **Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.

**Hogwarts Submitting Info: **Assignment #4, Lineage Studies Task #1 Write about an important arrival

**Warnings: **Loss; grief

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**Stacked with: **MC4A; Shipping Wars; Hogwarts; Lessons Learned

**Individual Challenge(s): **Black Ribbon; Black Ribbon Redux; Gryffindor MC; Hufflepuff MC; Slytherin MC; Bow Before the Blacks; Spring Rain; Seeds; Golden Times; Old Shoes; Themes & Things A (Family); Themes & Things B (Risk); Tiny Terror; Advice from the Mug; True Colours; Rian-Russo Inversion; In a Flash; Yellow Ribbon; Yellow Ribbon Redux

**Representation(s): **Remus

**Bonus challenge(s): **Hot Apple; Second Verse (Middle Name); Chorus (Odd Feathers)

**Tertiary bonus challenge: **NA

**Word Count: **1197

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_**Shipping Wars**_

**Ship (Team): **Nymphadora Tonks/Remus Lupin (Technicolour Moon)

**List (Prompt): **Fall Micro 2 (Sacrifice)

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_**Summer Bingo**_

**Space Address (Prompt): **2B (Legacy)

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**Questions That Need Asking**

When Andromeda closed the door behind Molly Weasley, excusing herself under the cover of night and hiding under her cloak for good measure, she pressed her forehead against the door and took a deep breath.

She was tired—of course she was, they had all been up for hours waiting for the baby to come. And since Dora had staunchly refused to go to St. Mungo's given the current climate, Molly's midwife training had been put to good use and Andromeda's guest bedroom had been turned into a temporary delivery room.

Still; even if her beautiful grandson had made his way into the world safe and sound, his mother doing just as well, Andromeda still felt restless and flitty. She wandered into the kitchen and set the kettle to boil, reached for loaves of bread and cheese and butter and apples to chop… She had been up for hours but she hadn't done the most significant work, after all. She couldn't help but look for a way to keep her hands busy, anxiety stirring in her.

When she carefully made her way upstairs again with a teatray in hand, she paused in the doorframe of the guest room to smile at the scene before her. Dora was sleeping so deeply and soundly that her hair was transitioning sofly between shades of blue and pink and green—something like the Northern lights. She was snuggled against Remus, who had climbed into bed with her and was propped up against the headboard. The baby, that beautiful little boy, was curled up against his chest. Andromeda had never seen Remus bare chested before but she knew from Dora that he was quite self-conscious about his various scars and marks. Still; it was good for babies to have skin-to-skin contact and Remus hadn't hesitated. He looked exhausted but content, one hand resting on Dora's shoulder and the other cradling Edward—Teddy, they'd been calling him… She was quite pleased to see that his hair was now a cheerful dandelion yellow.

Eventually Remus must have felt his eyes on her because he looked up.

"Don't worry," she said. "And don't move. You seem to be at the crux of some very good dreams…"

Remus smiled and looked at the sleeping forms around him. Andromeda placed her tray on the desk in the corner and took a seat.

"She'll be hungry when she wakes up—you must be starving too…"

"I'm okay," Remus smiled at her. He looked down at Teddy. "I'm more worried about his appetite, knowing he'll wake her up when he makes up his mind about it…"

Andromeda smiled. She reached for the wedding ring that hung around her neck on a chain. Ministry representatives and Snatchers alike showed up at the house so frequently and with so little rhyme or reason that wearing the ring on her finger was too risky. Still, she liked keeping it close. It made Ted feel less far away. And this was definitely a moment she wished he could be around for.

Remus, always so perceptive, seemed to guess her thoughts because he readjusted his position to hold out one hand to her. She took it and squeezed.

"I didn't know you were going to call the baby Edward," Andromeda whispered.

"I hope you're okay with that," Remus said. "Dora fell in love with the idea, I hadn't even thought of asking before I suggested it…"

"It was your idea?" Andromeda asked.

Remus nodded. He looked towards his son again and then to Andromeda.

"He was robbed of a very good man," Remus said. "As were you, as was Dora…"

"As were you," Andromeda said. "Ted quite liked you, even when you were still only growing on me."

Remus smiled and looked at Teddy again. He didn't look up when he spoke to her now.

"I've lost family before," Remus said quietly. "My mother's illness was quick and vicious. James was my best friend, Lily may as well have been my sister, Sirius my brother… My father and I weren't quite close, but it still hurt. I don't want those experiences for my son."

Andromeda squeezed his fingers. "You and Dora have been so much more careful recently…"

"For his sake, yes," Remus said. "But there might… if there's ever a time where it will do him more good for us to go fight for him, I know we will. I'll try to talk Dora out of it, but that won't work... And if something happens to me or—Merlin forbid—both of us…"

"Remus, what are you saying?" Andromeda said. "Sweetheart, you're exhausted—you've been up for nearly a full day, and heavens, your son is only hours old… don't say things like that…"

"They've got to be said," Remus said determinately. "If something happens, I know you'll take care of him…"

She clucked her tongue—a habit her mother had never condoned, most likely because it showed too much personality and too little restraint. She let go of his hand and got up, smoothing down the folds of her skirt. Remus looked at her, his expression confused for a second.

"Andromeda," he repeated. "I'm very serious. I grew up in a war and I hope Teddy won't, but I spent my adult life looking at its orphans too and I... I need to know that…"

Her hand found the wedding ring at her neck again. It wasn't that she didn't understand Remus' question or faulted him for worrying, or questioned the validity of it all. It was just that he was asking her to visualize a world in which she lost more of her family on the first day in weeks that she'd actually smiled without feeling like it killed her a little bit more. On the first good day since Ted died, she didn't want to think about losing more. With Teddy around, she felt like she finally had a family that was whole again. She felt like she'd just been released and given the right to surface for air again—sure that she couldn't go without this again.

But she also remembered when Dora had been born. How she'd held her child in her arms and been sure that she couldn't go back to a world without her. Remus cradled Teddy with that kind of soft, all-consuming, ever-loving fierceness. He was covering his bases as much as she was trying to protect hers.

_She _was the one clutching the wedding ring of a man she was never supposed to have met. She should understand cruelty and the drive to prepare for it better than anyone.

"Of course your son will be taken care of if something happens to you. I'm in love with him too, you know. Of course I'll take care of him," Andromeda said softly.

"Thank you," he said.

"You know I will," Andromeda repeated again. "Now stop asking questions that don't need to be asked, you silly man. Is this what's been keeping you up? Get some sleep before your son wakes up, that'll teach you to waste a perfectly good opportunity for sleep…"

Remus grinned crookedly.

"I'll shut the light on my way out," Andromeda said quietly as she glided towards the door. "Sleep well."


End file.
